To me, theater is the mecca; if you really love to act, that's where it's the most fun, by a long shot. — Scott Caan
Acting is behaving truthfully under imaginary circumstances. — Sanford Meisner
I hold theatre acting in such high esteem that it scares me. — Kate Bosworth
The difference - the fundamental difference between theater acting and film acting is that film acting is disjunctive. — James Lipton
To me, acting is acting... I'd be happy working on a street corner in a mime troupe. — Kelly McGillis
Acted drama requires surrender of one's self, sympathetic absorption in the play as it develops. — George P. Baker
Acting is the art of speaking in a loud, clear voice and the avoidance of bumping into the furniture. — Alfred Lunt
Movies will make you famous; Television will make you rich; But theatre will make you good. — Terrence Mann
Acting in theatre or television or screen is only for the irrecoverably diseased, those so smitten with the need that there is no choice. — Michael Shurtleff
Film actors reach a certain level, but they don't get beyond it unless they work in the theater. — Shirley Knight
Acting is nothing more or less than playing. The idea is to humanize life. — Jeff Goldblum
Theater is a verb before it is a noun, an act before it is a place. — Martha Graham
I love acting. It is so much more real than life. — Oscar Wilde
With a theatre audience there's always the additional sense of a sustained challenge of which I'm acutely aware and for which you need to have the tools ready - your voice, physicality, brain. — Greta Scacchi
Acting is about being real, being honest. — Kate Winslet
Short Theatre Acting Quotes
I went to drama school at NYU for serious acting. So I was doing Chekov and Sam Shepard plays. — Casey Wilson
I think film and television are really a director's medium, whereas theatre is the actor's medium. — Christopher Eccleston
Acting is like a Halloween mask that you put on. — River Phoenix
Acting is merely the art of keeping a large group of people from coughing. — Ralph Richardson
Action is always seen as the bottom rung of thespian endeavour, that's just the way it is. — Sylvester Stallone
The only thing that matters is the theater! — Lily Rabe
I joined an acting class in my junior year in high school. I'd always wanted to try it. — Rainn Wilson
Theatre Acting Image Quotes
Sometimes there is no next time, no time-outs, no second chances. Sometimes it's now or never.
Revolutions are brought about by men, by men who think as men of action and act as men of thought. — Kwame Nkrumah
Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph. — Haile Selassie
Listen with curiosity. Speak with honesty. Act with integrity.
Be Prepared... the meaning of the motto is that a scout must prepare himself by previous thinking out and practicing how to act on any accident or emergency so that he is never taken by surprise. — Robert Baden-Powell
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws. — Plato
The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion. — Albert Camus
There are seven days in the week and someday isn't one of them.
There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism. — Alexander Hamilton
Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. — Leo Buscaglia
To force a human being to learn according to a set curriculum is a dictatorial act. — Muammar al-Gaddafi
The revolution and women's liberation go together. We do not talk of women's emancipation as an act of charity or out of a surge of human compassion. It is a basic necessity for the revolution to triumph. Women hold up the other half of the sky. — Thomas Sankara
Theatre Drama Quotes
Drama is exposure; it is confrontation; it is contradiction and it leads to analysis, construction, recognition and eventually to an awakening of understanding. — Peter Brook
As long as more people will pay admission to a theater to see a naked body than to see a naked brain, the drama will languish. — George Bernard Shaw
We know that the wildest and most moving dramas are played not in the theatre but in the hearts of ordinary men and women. — Carl Jung
Speak with honesty, think with sincerity, act with integrity.
By obtaining a sense of its place in the unfolding drama of life, set in an ecological theatre, so we can understand why it has become one of the leading players. — Simon Conway Morris
I'd been gearing up to working in theatre since coming out of drama school, but it was an exciting time for TV drama - it was the birth of Channel 4, and Brookside was very cutting-edge at the time. — Amanda Burton
A good drama critic is one who perceives what is happening in the theatre of his time. A great drama critic also perceives what is not happening. — Kenneth Tynan
Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.
Great drama is the souvenir of the adventure of a master among the pieces of his own soul. — George Jean Nathan
I grew up in the theatre. It's where I got my start. Writing a television drama with theatrical dialogue about the theatre is beyond perfection. — Aaron Sorkin
Normally our season is seven weeks in the Drama Theatre and four weeks in the Opera Theater. — Graeme Murphy
I paid my dues at drama school and worked backstage in every theatre in London. — Richard O'Brien
Stage Acting Quotes
I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space, whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theatre to be engaged. — Peter Brook
There are six stages to knowledge: Firstly: Asking questions in a good manner. Secondly: Remaining quiet and listening attentively. Thirdly: Understanding well. Fourthly: Memorising. Fifthly: Teaching. Sixthly- and it is its fruit: Acting upon the knowledge and keeping to its limits. — Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya
The inner life of the [imagination], and not the personal and tiny experiential resources of the actor, should be elaborated on the stage and shown to the audience. This life is rich and revealing for the audience as well as for the actor himself. — Michael Chekhov
We are what we repeatedly do; excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
People do complain about the way I act on stage... They think on stage I act too arrogant, too self-obsessed, solecistic, self-contained, synonyms. — Bo Burnham
All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages. — William Shakespeare
I would rather do many small roles on TV, stage or film than one blockbuster that made me rich but had no acting. — Miranda Richardson
Kindness is not a business. True kindness expects nothing in return and should never act with conditions.
Art is violent. To be decisive is violent. ... To place a chair at a partial angle on the stage destroys every other possible choice, every other option. — Anne Bogart
We are setting the stage for war, Netanyahu is setting the path for Armageddon. America thinks that the presence of our offshore naval power will act as a deterrent to the Turks, Iranians, and others in the region that might otherwise become involved in a confrontation with Israel. — Douglas Macgregor
When the drama of history is over, Jesus Christ will stand alone on the stage. All the great figures of history ... will realize that they have been but actors in a drama produced by another. — Helmut Thielicke
We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force. — Ayn Rand
Theatre Actors Quotes
Preparing a character is the opposite of building-it is a demolishing, removing brick by brick everything in the actor's muscles, ideas and inhibitions that stands between him and the part, until one day, with a great rush of air, the character invades his every pore. — Peter Brook
Unless the theatre can ennoble you, make you a better person, you should flee from it. — Constantin Stanislavski
An actor must interpret life, and in order to do so he must be willing to accept all experiences that life can offer. — Marlon Brando
There is a strange pecking order among actors. Theatre actors look down on film actors, who look down on TV actors. Thank God for reality shows, or we wouldn't have anybody to look down on. — George Clooney
We can compare classical chess and rapid chess with theatre and cinema - some actors don't like the latter and prefer to work in the theatre. — Boris Spassky
Carry out a randon act of kindness, with no expectations of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you.
An actor is at his best a kind of unfrocked priest who, for an hour or two, can call on heaven and hell to mesmerize a group of innocents. — Alec Guinness
I believe in the time when we shall be able to create works of art in the Theatre without the use of the written play, without the use of actors. — Edward Gordon Craig
There's nothing more boring than unintelligent actors, because all they have to talk about is themselves and acting. There have to be other things. — Tim Robbins
An actor without techies is a naked person standing in the dark trying to emote. A techie without actors is a person with marketable skills. — Mark Leslie
Actors And Acting Quotes
Work for the actor lies essentially in two areas: the ability to consistently create reality and the ability to express that reality. — Lee Strasberg
The way I saw it was, if I had the built-in following and the audience, but I also had the skill set of acting, that would shoot me to the top. Because there's so many good actors. There's so many good-looking people. But the X factor now is social media. — Jake Paul
Acting in a scene is like paddling a canoe from a pebbly beach on to the river, the writer builds the canoe, and the actor provides the river. The river is the actor's thoughts and emotions. — Sanford Meisner
Act as if it were impossible to fail.
One of the things I like about my profession, and that I find healthy, is that one constantly has to break oneself to pieces. — Liv Ullmann
Plastic surgery and breast implants are fine for people who want that, if it makes them feel better about who they are. But, it makes these people, actors especially, fantasy figures for a fantasy world. Acting is about being real being honest. — Kate Winslet
The number one thing I am earnestly attracted to is intelligence. Writers are thus the pinnacle of intelligence. While actors are great and awesome, writers literally create new worlds from scratch. What is sexier than that? Personally, I don't know why every person out there isn't dating a writer. — Rachel Bloom
Dream Big. Start small. Act now.
I always wanted to be an actor, but with a speech impediment it's kind of tough. I decided to roll the dice and take an acting class, which was very, very nerve-wracking... my stomach would just be in knots. — Nicholas Brendon
I just let the work speak for itself. An actor is not afraid to take risks; to put on different hats; to be a good guy, a bad guy, a victim, an abuser. There are all kinds of people in the world, and playing them is what acting is all about. — Kevin Bacon
I think every American actor wants to be a movie star. But I never wanted to do stupid movies, I wanted to do films. I vowed I would never do a commercial, nor would I do a soap opera -- both of which I did as soon as I left the Acting Company and was starving. — Kevin Kline
For minority actors, developing our own projects has to be the eventual path. We have a lot of stories to tell and a really unique voice. But none of that is going to be heard as long as we're just the hired hands, acting. — Jimmy Smits
Acting Classes Quotes
When I was in New York after I left the Army, I studied for two years at the American Theater Wing, studied acting, which involved dance and fencing and speech classes and history of theater, all that. — James Earl Jones
I never took acting classes, but I knew I could do it based on the skill with which I lied to my parents on a regular basis! — Ryan Reynolds
There's a lot of good rappers in England at the moment. There's a lot of good dance acts. A lot of good, young guitar acts. I think a lot of groups came from that dole culture of the late 80's/early 90's - it's not as easy now. I think there's a dearth of working class bands. — Ian Brown
Act with kindness but do not expect gratitude.
An elite class that is free to operate without limits - whether limits imposed by the rule of law or fear of the responses from those harmed by their behavior - is an elite class that will plunder, degrade, and cheat at will, and act endlessly to fortify its own power. — Glenn Greenwald
I am just a middle-class farm boy from Dodge City and my grandparents were wheat farmers. I thought painting, acting, directing and photography were all part of being an artist. I have made my money that way. And I have had some fun. It's not been a bad life. — Dennis Hopper
When we started off, we wanted the girls, the cocaine, the fur coats. It wasn't like it was an act; it was almost like working-class people winning the pools. We went bananas. — Noel Gallagher
There are two distinct classes of what are called thoughts: those that we produce in ourselves by reflection and the act of thinking and those that bolt into the mind of their own accord. — Thomas Paine
I learned much more about acting from philosophy courses, psychology courses, history and anthropology than I ever learned in acting class. — Tim Robbins
We have never yet had a labor Government that knew what taking power really means; they always act like second-class citizens. — Dora Russell
Stage Actors Quotes
There are five stages in the life of an actor: Who's Mary Astor? Get me Mary Astor. Get me a Mary Astor type. Get me a young Mary Astor. Who's Mary Astor? — Mary Astor
The world of chemical reactions is like a stage, on which scene after scene is ceaselessly played. The actors on it are the elements. — Clemens Winkler
This whole creation is essentially subjective, and the dream is the theater where the dreamer is at once: scene, actor, prompter, stage manager, author, audience, and critic. — Carl Jung
I'm known as a kind of dramatic, serious, almost humorless actor and the fact is, I'm a funny guy, and I spend most of my life trying to find a lighter side of things, and on stage was given plenty of opportunity to do that. — Campbell Scott
A true priest is aware of the presence of the altar during every moment that he is conducting a service. It is exactly the same way that a true artist should react to the stage all the time he is in the theater. An actor who is incapable of this feeling will never be a true artist. — Konstantin Stanislavisky
A true priest is aware of the presence of the altar during every moment that he is conducting a service. It is exactly the same way that a true artist should react to the stage all the time he is in the theater. An actor who is incapable of this feeling will never be a true artist. — Constantin Stanislavski
Our demands are simple, normal, and therefore they are difficult to satisfy. All we ask is that an actor on the stage live in accordance with natural laws. — Constantin Stanislavski
An actor is an actor is an actor. The less personality an actor has off stage the better. A blank canvas on which to draw the characters he plays. — Arthur Lowe
I never had any classes or went to theatre school like a lot of actors, so all of my training has been on stage with different directors. That was a pretty good school room. — James Denton
You need three things in the theatre - the play, the actors and the audience, and each must give something. — Kenneth Haigh
Theatre Quotes
Theatre is a form of knowledge; it should and can also be a means of transforming society. Theatre can help us build our future, rather than just waiting for it. — Augusto Boal
Create your own method. Don't depend slavishly on mine. Make up something that will work for you! But keep breaking traditions, I beg you. — Constantin Stanislavski
Unless the theatre can ennoble you, make you a better person, you should flee from it. — Konstantin Stanislavisky
You can't learn to act unless you're criticized. If you tie that criticism to your childhood insecurities you'll have a terrible time. Instead, you must take criticism objectively, pertaining it only to the work being done. — Sanford Meisner
An ounce of behavior is worth a pound of words. — Sanford Meisner
It is not theatre that is indispensable, but something quite different. To cross the frontiers between you and me. — Jerzy Grotowski
The truth of ourselves is the root of our acting. — Sanford Meisner
The work of rehearsal is looking for meaning and then making it meaningful. — Peter Brook
Coughing in the theater is not a respiratory ailment. It is a criticism. — Alan Jay Lerner
Acting From Actors Quotes
It is highly possible that what is called 'talented behavior' is simply a greater individual capacity for experiencing. From this point of view, it is in the increasing of the individual capacity for experiencing that the untold potentiality of a personality can be evoked. — Viola Spolin
More than in any other performing arts the lack of respect for acting seems to spring from the fact that every layman considers himself a valid critic. — Simone Weil
I love learning new things from the other actors. — Sadie Sink
Acting is not that far from mental disease: An actor works on splitting his character into others. It is like a kind of schizophrenia. — Vittorio Gassman
Acting is not being emotional, but being able to fully express emotion. — Kate Reid
The principal benefit acting has afforded me is the money to pay for my psychoanalysis. — Marlon Brando
If you really do want to be an actor who can satisfy himself and his audience, you need to be vulnerable. — Jack Lemmon
Make sure you live life, which means don't do things where you court celebrity, and give something positive back to our society. — Paul Newman
Acting is a question of absorbing other people's personalities and adding some of your own experience. — Jean-Paul Sartre
I think the most liberating thing I did early on was to free myself from any concern with my looks as they pertained to my work. — Meryl Streep
Acting And Performing Quotes
A Christian reveals true humility by showing the gentleness of Christ, by being always ready to help others, by speaking kind words and performing unselfish acts, which elevate and ennoble the most sacred message that has come to our world. — Ellen G. White
Rate your individual acts as good or bad, if you like. Seek to perform as many good ones, and as few bad ones, as possible. — Oliver Burkeman
Our conviction at BlackRock is that companies perform better when they are deliberate about their role in society and act in the interests of their employees, customers, communities, and their shareholders. — Larry Fink
Eating, bathing, going to the toilet, talking, thinking, and many other activities related to the body are all work. How is it that the performance of one particular act is alone (considered) work? To be still is to be always engaged in work. To be silent is to be always talking. — Ramana Maharshi
If he be really and seriously seeking to live a good life, the first thing from which he will abstain will always be the use of animal food, because ...its use is simply immoral, as it involves the performance of an act which is contrary to the moral feeling - killing. — Leo Tolstoy
The creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act. — Marcel Duchamp
I got an M.F.A. in acting from NYU, and part of our training is to learn how to use swords in combat situations in a performance and Shakespeare plays where you have to fight. — Danai Gurira
The audience is the most revered member of the theater. Without an audience, there is no theater. Everything done is ultimately for the enjoyment of the audience. They are our guests, fellow players, and the last spoke in the wheel which can then begin to roll. They make the performance meaningful. — Viola Spolin
Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired. — Martha Graham
A human being always acts and feels and performs in accordance with what he imagines to be true about himself and his environment. — Maxwell Maltz
Everyone has a different path. I knew no one in the acting industry growing up. I never did a play until college. I was not outspoken when I was younger and I hated being the center of attention. But I had a dream of being an actor. I went to NYU and studied theatre. I learned a craft. And began my career straight out of college. — Peter Facinelli
In the theatre we reach out and touch the past through literature, history and memory so that we might receive and relive significant and relevant human qualities in the present and then pass them on to future generations. — Anne Bogart
The main factor in any form of creativeness is the life of a human spirit, that of the actor and his part, their joint feelings and subconscious creation. — Constantin Stanislavski
It's not enough to have talent. You have to have a talent for your talent. — Stella Adler
Theatre for a New Audience is one of America's most admirable and exciting theatre companites...some of the best acted and directed work to be found on American stages, engaging with the canon of world dramatic literature in a vigorous way. — Tony Kushner
To go into acting is like asking for admission to an insane asylum. Anyone may apply, but only the certifiably insane are admitted. — Michael Shurtleff
Just be truthful - and if you can fake that, you've got it made. — Barbara Stanwyck
All the world's a stage, and all the men and women mearly players. — William Shakespeare
Acting is experience with something sweet behind it. — Humphrey Bogart
Listen carefully to first criticisms made of your work. Note just what it is about your work that critics don't like - then cultivate it. That's the only part of your work that's individual and worth keeping. — Jean Cocteau
The word theatre comes from the Greeks. It means the seeing place. — Stella Adler
Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theatre of Action; and bidding an Affectionate farewell to this August body under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer my commission, and take my leave of all the employments of public life. — George Washington
Acting is not about being someone different. It's finding the similarity in what is apparently different, then finding myself in there. — Meryl Streep
Theatre director: a person engaged by the management to conceal the fact that the players cannot act. — James Agate
I did theatre a lot when I was a kid. Then I went to acting school in New York. I did a lot of behind the scenes in college. I wanted to learn while I had the time. I studied theatre and film in different capacities. — Justin Bartha
I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being. — Oscar Wilde
I think theatre is by far the most rewarding experience for an actor. You get 4 weeks to rehearse your character and then at 7:30 pm you start acting and nobody stops you, acting with your entire soul. — Christopher Eccleston
The theatre-acting, creating, interpreting - means total involvement, the totality of heart, mind and spirit. — Stella Adler
Acting is an everlasting search for truth. — Laurence Olivier
All the world's a stage. — William Shakespeare
Acting is a trick word invented in the festival of Dionysus, before Christ, in Greece at a fertility festival. That's where theatre came from: a fertility festival. No women were allowed. All the men played all the parts. — Gary Busey
I'm curious about other people. That's the essence of my acting. I'm interested in what it would be like to be you. — Meryl Streep
When I was a fireman I was in a lot of burning buildings. It was a great job, the only job I ever had that compares with the thrill of acting. — Steve Buscemi
Theatre, in which actors take on changing roles, has among its many functions the examination of identity. For the individual, theatre is a kind of identity laboratory in which social roles can be examined vicariously. — Richard Hornby
I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms. — Thornton Wilder
Acting is a sport. On stage you must be ready to move like a tennis player on his toes. Your concentration must be keen, your reflexes sharp; your body and mind are in top gear, the chase is on. Acting is energy. In the theatre people pay to see energy. — Clive Swift
In Conclusion
Which quotation resonated with you best? Did you enjoy our collection of theatre acting quotes? Or may be you have a slogan about theatre acting to suggest. Let us know using our contact form.
Citation
Feel free to cite and use any of the quotes in this collection of theatre acting quotations. For popular citation styles(APA, Chicago, MLA), please use this citation page.
